The launch of the Soyuz TMA-22 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan has removed an air of uncertainly involving Russia's ability to support the International Space Station since the failure of a Progress cargo ship last August.
The Soyuz is taking NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin to the International Space Station in the first manned space flight since Atlantis closed out the space shuttle program last summer.
Why was the successful launch of the Soyuz important?
Because the Progress used similar systems to the Soyuz, its failure suggested that the same problem might crop up in the latter spacecraft as well. Subsequent examination, though, demonstrated that the Progress failure was caused by a blocked fuel line. The Soyuz was checked thoroughly before it was cleared for launch. It was determined that the Progress failure was a one-time thing, alleviating fears that there would be no method of taking crews to and from the International Space Station. Plans had been made to temporarily abandon the ISS in case the problem was not fixed before supplies started to run low.
How does the launch boost the Russian space program?
The Russian space program has suffered a number of failures in recent months. Besides the failure of the Progress mission, Russia's ambitious planetary probe, Phobos-Grunt, failed to fire a series of rocket engine burns that would have sent it toward Mars. It is very likely that the probe, designed to retrieve soil and rock samples from the Martian moon Phobos, is lost.
So the United States, Russia, and the other international partners can still use the ISS?
With the end of the space shuttle program and the creation of government subsidized commercial space taxis not due to enter service until later this decade, the Russian Soyuz is the only space craft that can take astronauts to the ISS. Proof that the Soyuz, which has been in service in one form or another since the late 1960s, is still reliable has gone a long way to restoring the comfort level of the ISS partners.
But having just one way to go to the ISS is still not a good thing, right?
The problems with the Progress have highlighted a debate in the United States over how to restore American manned space flight capabilities. Some American politicians want to accelerate the Orion/Space Launch System program to create a space craft capable of taking people to low Earth orbit. Others want to accelerate the commercial crew program, which uses government subsidies to help commercial space firms create their own space craft that they will operate under NASA supervision.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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